Review: Timeless by Alexandra Monir

When tragedy strikes Michele Windsor’s world, she is forced to uproot her life and move across the country to New York City, to live with the wealthy, aristocratic grandparents she’s never met. In their old Fifth Avenue mansion filled with a century’s worth of family secrets, Michele discovers a diary that hurtles her back in time to the year 1910. There, in the midst of the glamorous Gilded Age, Michele meets the young man with striking blue eyes who has haunted her dreams all her life – a man she always wished was real, but never imagined could actually exist. And she finds herself falling for him, into an otherworldly, time-crossed romance.

Michele is soon leading a double life, struggling to balance her contemporary high school world with her escapes into the past. But when she stumbles upon a terrible discovery, she is propelled on a race through history to save the boy she loves – a quest that will determine the fate of both of their lives.

“Sixteen long years of unbearable waiting. I can’t do it anymore. She was supposed to return—she always did—and now I see the cruelty in this helpless waiting, living at the mercy of Time. Dragging through the days, I ask myself why I bother when I know that the one place I can find her isn’t here on earth. That’s it—that’s enough of this—I’m done.”

Timeless fits into one of my favorite genres – time travel. As soon as I read the blurb I was hooked and couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

Taking place in New York City, this story centers around Michele who is forced to move in with her wealthy grandparents after a shock accident. Friendless and alone in a new and completely unfamiliar world she discovers a diary which sends her back in time to 1910 where she meets the man quite literally from her dreams.

It was clear from the get go that this was written by a first time author. The prose and story are in parts clumsily written, but it was one of those books that even though you saw faults you still enjoyed the journey. The author managed to inject such sheer enthusiasm and passion into the story that you just can’t help but go along for the ride page by page.

The plot is intriguing and I loved the author’s originality weaving music especially written for the novel into the storyline. Unfortunately the prose felt quite rushed and would have benefited from a slightly more leisurely pace especially lengthening out descriptions and slowing the characters down, Michele especially always seemed so rushed I don’t know when the poor girl actually slept! I also found I had to go back over specific paragraphs a couple of times to work out the very logistics of the time traveling it didn’t always flow easily and at times seemed quite awkward.

While I liked the protagonist, Michele, I was disappointed by how lacking her character development was. And if I’m quite honest Michele’s development is lush and full when you consider the blank canvas that plays her male lead and love interest Phillip! The instant connection they apparently feel for one another just doesn’t ring true – I really didn’t buy the star crossed lovers thing at all and I hope that book 2 really focuses on developing their relationship with one another.

While most people wouldn’t consider a location as a character, I think in this book you really must. New York city plays such a huge part in the telling of the story and the rich detail of the different periods Michele travels to in the 20th century makes this book completely worth reading. I never had any interest in traveling to New York but after reading this story I caught the travel bug! The descriptions given are so dimensional – you can almost taste and feel the very textures of the sights, sounds and history of the different time periods.

While there are many problems with this novel, the overall story was so unique and enjoyable you can only expect the series to improve as Monir gains further writing experience. If you’re looking for a fun, light read I would suggest you pick it up!

Philippa says:

Emily @ Falling For YA says:

I have gone back and forth on whether to buy this book or not. I think I will borrow it from the library after reading your review. I’m still excited about reading the novel because I love time travel as well but I’m really bummed about the lack of character development.